"Eating Out of the Drain" opened last Friday at The Popular Workshop featuring new works by Chris Lux and Dane Johnson and the show is shall we say, very sexual. A small, sophisticated crowd was present, most of who seemed to be friends or family of the artist. There was no music or booze, so most guests seemed to just pop in and out.

Chris Lux's work consists of sculptures and paintings along with the studies he completed in their making. Of his pieces, the largest was Depeche Mode “Halo” depicting a black man actively pursuing a white woman. Because of its size, it was utterly unavoidable. A girl looking at this piece and talking about its inherent racism mentioned it being "completely offensive" but she said it with smile before having another sip of her wine. Besides the painting, Lux has several graphic gouache pieces in black and white hung in a small room built in the back. I hope it was built recently (and is still in process), because there was no paint on the wood walls and it was completely segregated from the rest of the show.

On the other side of the gallery are many works by Dane Johnson in photography, painting and sculpture, none missing out on his sexual overtone. His work incorporates iconographic figures from pop culture, ranging from Mickey Mouse to Derek Jeter, removed from any other pop culture reference and presented as fine art. However, the hallmark piece of his show is Untitled (White Guys Taking Black Cocks/ The Monstercock Max de Long Experience 2) which was basically a collage of photographs of masculine camping supplies resting on two shelves full of porno (which is where the title comes from). It combines both the sexuality and racial nature of the show without disguising it whatsoever.

Ultimately, I think "Eating Out of the Drain" is operating on shock tactics and references to pop culture. By making the show inherently sexual and racial, there will inevitably be discussions raised by it; however, those discussions probably won't have any mention of the actual aesthetic quality in the work, as it has been completely covered in order to appall audiences.

----
Reportage by Rachel Ralph, Fecal Face's new San Francisco correspondent. You can email her at rachel(at)fecalface.com

Reportage by Rachel Ralph, Fecal Face's new San Francisco correspondent. You can email her at rachel(at)fecalface.com

111 Minna never disappoints and Friday night was no exception. Even the uber-corporate crowd, with their glowing ID badges couldn't detract from the quality of the work in their newest show, "Corporeal Clusters" with works from Kelly Allen, Melissa Arendt and Xiau-Fong Wee. The place was packed, as I stepped on more than one shined toe from men's dress shoes, and was filled playing top 40 hits, a weird atmosphere for the gallery. However, the quality of the work is what prevails; there are some really beautiful paintings here.

The show opens with Kelly Allen's photorealistic paintings of animals combined with geometric and biomorphic shapes, setting the tone with a geometric and animalistic thread that runs throughout the entire gallery. Next on inside are Melissa Arendt's paintings on wood panels using geometric shapes and human figures, while letting the grain of the wood compose the background. I was especially attracted to the grouping Clusterfuck Series #s 11, 6, 7, 9, 5. Is that Bowie a la Labrynth I see in the center? Why yes it is, and it made my day. Her next grouping had several works which incorporated glitter, and most of these had been sold by the time I had gotten there at 8:00.

While there is no question of the beauty in both Allen's and Arendt's works, the standout for me were the acrylic paintings on canvas by Xiau-Fong Wee. My god are they beautiful. All I could say (literally) was "wow." The works have amorphous animal/human figures, most of which have the female form, indicating a connection with mother nature. The delicate treatment of the surface of the paintings and the natural aesthetic qualities reminded me of the surreal beauty of Tiffany Bozic's work, but taken to a whole new, dream-like level.

Ultimately, the crowd won the battle of wits, and I just had to get out of there. I will definitely be back before the show closes on November 10th, when I can actually see the paintings, without the soul-crushing music and the creepy businessmen. Really, this show is a must-see, and I guarantee you that you don't want to miss it. -more photos

We've been covering the Fame Festival that went down in Italy featuring street art works from Erica Il Cane, Vhils, Interesni Kazki, Conor Harrington, Cyop & Kaf, Momo, Lucy McLauchlan, Bastardilla, Moneyless, Boris Hoppek and the local artist Giorgio Di Palma. Besides the works on the street (blog one | blog two) there was also this indoor exhibition to coincide.

Last Friday THIS, Los Angeles gallery presented Turbo Lover, a solo show from artist, printmaker, and painter Thom Lessner (Philadelphia) whose known for his 80s pop culture paintings and wood cutouts. Not only has he designed and printed various rock school posters for Paul Green School of Rock Music, but he has also done work for Enjoi, Snickers, Toyota, Thrasher, Vice just to mention a few. If your'e a fan of music, metal, and styling mullets like I am, then you should go check out Turbo Lover which runs from Sept 28th thru Oct 19th at THIS, LA in Highland Park. Here's some pictures from the opening reception.

The San Francisco showing of the well traveled Film por Vida show was packed. Photo nuts and skate rats poured into the new Book and Job gallery on Geary street to view the hundreds of post cards and framed photos. Contributed by members of the Print Exchange Program that Jai started over six years ago, the walls on the ground floor were blanketed by carefully strung 4x6 postcard prints.

Since its inception, the program of mutual exchange of original images has grown to include many international participants and followers of the web site, http://filmporvida.blogspot.com/. At this showing, the exhibitions 4th, participants were featured on one wall and specific heavy contributors had their own sections. A framed section featured many Bay Area and previously featured photographers like Joe Brook, Bryce Knights, Sam Millianta, Takeshi Abe, Dave Schubert, Dennis McGrath, David Franklin, Dan Boulton and skater-photo-nuts like Ben Gore and Ryan McWhirter. From a photographers prospective is was amazing amount of eye candy; medium format to half-frame formats, machine prints to hand printed masterpieces just about every type of process was on display. The subject matter went from boobs to boards, sunny skies to frightful nights and dipshits on drugs.

If you are a fan of photography even in the slightest, go visit the show it's up for the rest of the month and into early October. Many thanks to Jai Tanju, Cameron Balliet and Shawn Whisenant for putting the show together and making it such a great time. Apologies for not writing down the names of the photographers whose photos are featured, it was a long and fun night with a few beers.

Last week we checked out Mike Shine's current show running @111 Minna through Oct 13th here in San Francisco. Nordic, Teutonic philosophy, Kubrick, PT Barnum, Absinthe, and other influences taint his paintings. The Carny Bastards. Spanning centuries and geographies, the ragtag collection of souls are a mix of gods and mortals, beauty and beasts. The work will be a follow up to Shine's show at the SF Outside Lands in August, offering an in-depth look at the world of Dr. Flotsam.

Gold Coast reflects the experiences growing up, and living on the West Coast, and specifically in California where ambitions to become superstars and rockstars intermix with atmosphere of "eternal sunshine, pot smoking hippies, yoga, board shorts . . and lazy vacation style living."

Having struck up a friendship while in city college studying graphic design, Gibson and Bertino's collection of work for Gold Coast play on these themes of "ambition and the illusion of indifferent coolness that bastardizes everything it comes in contact with. Underground music, cultural sub genres, and/or indigenous art are just fodder for a state of cultural irrelevance that is based on aesthetic appeal and a laissez faire type attitude toward creativity."

THIS Los Angeles is located in Highland Park and run by 5 friends. It's one of my favorite spaces, if not my favorite gallery deal. My photo is crap compared to what these two rad photographers Aaron Farley & Justin Van Hoy take.

Congrats on the show fellas. . . sorry I didn't get a chance to snap you dudesss!

Press via Beautiful Decay:Great show up at FFDG in San Francisco right now. Eric Shaw and Henry Gunderson spent a couple weeks on the beast coast cooking up some vibey abstractions for us and now they’re ready to be seen! Both artist’s works definitely play off each other really nicely, and if you’re out in SF, this one is not to be missed.

I'm not sure how many people are lucky enough to have The San Francisco Giants 3 World Series trophies put on display at their work for the company's employees to enjoy during their lunch break, but that's what happened the other day at Deluxe. So great.

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.

Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading

"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on

NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?

The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.

Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON

SAN FRANCISCO --- The Headlands Center for the Arts is preparing for their largest fundraiser of the year set to go down on June 4th at SOMArts here in the city. Art auction, food, drinks, live music, etc and all for helping to support a great institution up in the Marin Headlands. ~details

ABOUT HEADLANDSHeadlands Center for the Arts provides an unparalleled environment for the creative process and the development of new work and ideas. Through a range of programs for artists and the public, we offer opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and exchange that build understanding and appreciation for the role of art in society.

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

Material published on FECAL FACE DOT COM online service is copyrighted by Fecal Face or its licensors, including the originating wire services. Such material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws and treaties. All rights reserved.

Users of the Fecal Face online service may not reproduce, republish or redistribute material found on the web site in any form without the express written consent of the copyright holder.